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Little Red Dots (NIRCam Image)

Six Webb images of little red dots are combined in a two-row mosaic. Each little red dot is centered within a square frame and lies against the black background of space. Each dot has a yellow-white circular core surrounded by a red, fuzzy ring. White text in the top left corner of each box lists the source’s name from the Webb surveys, and its redshift. From left to right, the top row reads CEERS 14448, z = 4.75; NGDEEP 4321, z = 8.92; and PRIMER-COS 10539, z = 7.48. The bottom row reads CEERS 20320, z = 5.27; JADES 9186, z = 4.99; and PRIMER-UDS 17818, z = 6.40.

A team of astronomers sifted through James Webb Space Telescope data from multiple surveys to compile one of the largest samples of “little red dots” (LRDs) to date. The team started with the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey before widening their scope to other extragalactic legacy fields, including the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) and the Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public (NGDEEP) survey.

From their sample, they found that these mysterious red objects that appear small on the sky emerge in large numbers around 600 million years after the big bang and undergo a rapid decline in quantity around 1.5 billion years after the big bang. Spectroscopic data of some of the LRDs in their sample, provided by the Red Unknowns: Bright Infrared Extragalactic Survey (RUBIES), suggests that many are accreting black holes. However, further study of these intriguing objects is required.

About the Object

  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Each square is 1.5 arcseconds across

About the Data

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F115W, F200W, F444W
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Little red objects from JADES, CEERS, PRIMER, UNCOVER and NGDEEP Surveys
  • Release Date
    January 14, 2025
  • Science Release
    Newfound Galaxy Class May Indicate Early Black Hole Growth, Webb Finds
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Print), 1548 × 1032
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    png (5.3 MB)
Six Webb images of little red dots are combined in a two-row mosaic. Each little red dot is centered within a square frame and lies against the black background of space. Each dot has a yellow-white circular core surrounded by a red, fuzzy ring. White text in the top left corner of each box lists the source’s name from the Webb surveys, and its redshift. From left to right, the top row reads CEERS 14448, z = 4.75; NGDEEP 4321, z = 8.92; and PRIMER-COS 10539, z = 7.48. The bottom row reads CEERS 20320, z = 5.27; JADES 9186, z = 4.99; and PRIMER-UDS 17818, z = 6.40.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample wide infraraed wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Red: F444W, Green: F200W, Blue: F115W

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College)

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